Canada takes gold at sledge hockey worlds

Team beats reigning world and Olympic champion U.S. team to take top spot

Team Canada's Graeme Murray is pictured hoisting the winning trophy at the 2009 Hockey Canada Sledge Hockey Tournament, held in Vancouver. Murray scored the only goal Canada would need on Saturday in its 1-0 victory over the United States in the gold medal game of the IPC sledge hockey world championships in Goyang, South Korea.

Photograph by: Kim Stallknecht/Hockey Canada
, Vancouver Sun files

There was elation and considerable relief Saturday as the Canadian sledge hockey team edged the United States 1-0 in Goyang, South Korea, to win its first IPC world championship gold medal since 2008.

Defenceman Graeme Murray scored the only goal 2:07 into the second period when his shot from the right point appeared to change direction off an American player in the slot. The puck took a weird bounce, then glanced off the back of goaltender Steve Cash before just trickling across the goal-line.

Canada went 5-0 in the eight-country tournament and denied the Americans, the 2010 Paralympic champions, a third consecutive world championship title.

After winning Paralympic gold at Turin in 2006 and gold at the 2008 worlds, Canada has experienced plenty of big-game heartbreaks over the past few years.

“This feels incredible,” captain Greg Westlake, a 26-year-old centre who has been with the program for a decade, said from Goyang.

“It’s a long time since we’ve won and a lot of negative things have happened. (Team member) Matt Cook passing away in 2010 (after a recurrence of bone cancer), finishing fourth at the Paralympics (in Vancouver in 2010). It’s been tough over the years, but we’ve just tried to keep improving and improving and this is the culmination of all that hard work.”

Canada had to settle for bronze medals at both the 2009 and 2012 worlds when it lost one-goal games to the U.S. in semifinals, including 2-1 in a shootout last year in Norway.

And at Vancouver in 2010, the Canadians were upset 3-1 by Japan in the semifinals and then lost the bronze-medal match 2-1 to Norway.

“It feels like we were on the short end so many times,” said Westlake, who was born in Vancouver but moved to Ontario as an infant. “We’d come out of games where the score was not indicative of the game.

“This one was kind of similar. It wasn’t a 1-0 game. We could have won by three or four. We missed some good chances. But it was good to clamp down defensively and get the win.”

Canada, coached by Mike Mondin of Trail, controlled play for large stretches and outshot the Americans 15-5. The U.S. had scored 19 goals and conceded just one in going 4-0 to start the tournament.

Westlake, named top forward after scoring five goals and adding three assists, could easily have had a couple of goals in the final. Cash robbed him with a blocker save in the first period, then Westlake rang a shot off the crossbar from the high slot in the third.

“We were so sick of losing,” said the captain, who had both legs amputated below the knee at 18 months of age. “We just committed to working hard for the full 45 minutes. Even when they started to push back a bit in the third, we still didn’t give them any real good chances.”

While most of the team returned home Sunday, Westlake, linemate Brad Bowden and Adam Crockatt, Hockey Canada program manager for sledge, travelled to Sochi to check out the venue for the 2014 Paralympics.

Russia, competing in the top pool at worlds for the first time, won the bronze medal Saturday with a 3-0 victory over the Czech Republic.

Team Canada's Graeme Murray is pictured hoisting the winning trophy at the 2009 Hockey Canada Sledge Hockey Tournament, held in Vancouver. Murray scored the only goal Canada would need on Saturday in its 1-0 victory over the United States in the gold medal game of the IPC sledge hockey world championships in Goyang, South Korea.

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